Freelance Communications Consultant Anneliese Levy shares tips on enhancing clarity in technical writing. Visit Anneliese’s website for more of her work.
Academic writing can be complex, and a recent analysis by The Economist concluded that academic writing has become much harder to read over the past 80 years.
As science communicators we aim to take technical texts and turn them into accessible content. But what happens when we need to work with academics who are not familiar with concepts like readability or plain English?
Why is academic writing so complicated?
Understanding the many reasons behind complex writing can help you approach academics with empathy. They may be used to writing for their peers, where jargon serves as a useful shorthand within a specialism. And they are taught to convey their expertise through complex terminology. A 2015 article in The Atlantic suggests that, “academics play an elitist game with their words: They want to exclude interlopers.”
The pressure to publish also plays a big role. Competition for space in prestigious journals creates a ‘survival of the fittest’ culture. Researchers have to follow existing publishing norms, which typically reward the use of complex language.
Why is clear writing important?
Clear writing should be a valued skill for academics and researchers, as translating thinking into plain language is a beneficial intellectual exercise. I like to ask, “could you write it on a Post-it note?” This helps sharpen and clarify ideas.
Clear writing can be a professional necessity: clear and compelling writing is important for funding applications. The UK Standards for Public Involvement includes communications as one of six guidelines. They urge researchers to consider whether, “the needs of different people are being met through inclusive and flexible communication methods?” And a plain English summary is required by the NIHR and other bodies as part of any grant application.
What do researchers want to achieve; do they want their research to go beyond journal publication and have a wider impact? If so, communicating clearly to the public, journalists and policy-makers is vital.
Informing academics about clear communication
Knowing where to start if you are not used to simpler writing can be daunting. As Steve Jobs said, “simple can be harder than complex.”
I produced a one-page writing cheat sheet for academics and ran a science communication training session for research academics, as well as clinical trial staff. This was warmly received.
Other key concepts to include in training and guidance on writing clarity:
- examples of how to write using simple words and sentences
- explanation of the active tense
- how to avoid or explain complex terms where possible
- the problem with adverbs
- writing for brevity (particularly removing superfluous words!)
- how people read online, and writing for scan reading
Consider also informing researchers of storytelling as a communicative tool. Taking a moment to consider how to tell the story of their research, can make it more compelling.
Defining your audience
I encourage academics to think about their audience before writing. Who do they want to reach and why?
If writing for the general public, researchers should know the reality of literacy and numeracy skills. For example, 1 in 6 people in the UK have very low literacy skills, and 50% of the population are at or below primary school numeracy level.
Even if the audience is not lay people, they may not be specialists. Ask them to consider the context in which their writing is being read: whether it’s time-poor early career researchers or busy clinical staff. As Kerry Noble, Communications Consultant advises, “I often also talk about how a ‘researcher’ is not just a scientist. For example in medical research, we also need nurses, physiotherapists, play therapists, etc. to be active in research. Many of these will not be using scientific-style writing in their day-to-day work.”
Offer practical writing tools
The Plain English Campaign’s free guides help. As well as the Hemingway Editor which provides a readability score, marks up complex sentences and language with advice on how to improve writing clarity. Evidence like this is useful for persuading the most reluctant of your colleagues!
Generative AI can be a useful tool for creating summaries and as a starting point for clearer writing. But don’t rely on ChatGPT alone for improving writing clarity, these are tools to support rather than replace.
Not everyone will understand
That’s OK. Reassure them, and yourself, that even taking small steps will work towards opening up the research world. Making it more accessible to all.
